Just thinking out loud here but I wonder if the Big Ten is looking around at the expansion taking place and wondering if they should not target the two "prizes" still left out there in UConn and Rutgers. Adding those two schools would provide access of the BTN to NYC and those two respective universities are also pretty damn solid academically.

Adding those two would only mean a slight alteration of the Legends and Leaders divisions; Illinois would slide over to the Legends while UConn and Rutgers would be added to the Leaders. Nothing complicated at all.

So does the ACC now move forward with 15 schools in non-football sports or try to add another school that will play football outside of the conference?

EDIT: I know that staying at 15 is supposedly the plan, just trying to figure out if I really buy it. A 15 team conference seems goofy, especially when basketball is so important in the ACC and they're splitting into divisions.

Just thinking out loud here but I wonder if the Big Ten is looking around at the expansion taking place and wondering if they should not target the two "prizes" still left out there in UConn and Rutgers. Adding those two schools would provide access of the BTN to NYC and those two respective universities are also pretty damn solid academically.

Adding those two would only mean a slight alteration of the Legends and Leaders divisions; Illinois would slide over to the Legends while UConn and Rutgers would be added to the Leaders. Nothing complicated at all.

Wonder if Delaney is thinking of that at all.

No. If we're to believe basically everything else coming out from the Big Ten privately, they don't view Rutgers or UConn as capable of bringing in enough revenue to justify splitting the pot two more ways. They've never been very interested in going beyond 12, except for kicking the can around with Texas, which was never going to happen.

Honestly, I think this puts a cap on the expansion/realingment for at least the next few years. All of the five major leagues have or will have lucrative TV deals and large enough buyouts that movement among them doesn't seem likely.

There could still be some potential poaching of a team or two from the Big East, but unless the Big 12 decides that it really wants a championship game (it has repeatedly said it's happy at 10 because it means each team keeps more money), or the ACC decides that 15 is too awkward for non-football sports (it's not), I don't see the compelling team out there that any of the other leagues are going to want to have.

That's not a shot at schools like Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati, and UConn. The problem is that every time you add a team, you split the revenue one more way, and the idea of a 16 team league honestly only makes sense if you're adding teams like Texas, Notre Dame, etc. This is where the ACC ****** up by adding Syracuse and Pittsburgh, and honestly where I think the SEC broke even, at best, by adding Missouri and Texas A&M.

At the very least, I think the big leagues will wait a few years to settle in their new programs before they start looking at further potential additions. But I could be totally wrong.

Most likely you're right BF but for my sake I do hope that prediction looks dumb a year from now. I want out of this god forsaken conference already. Unfortunately we have no one to blame but ourselves for it though.

Georgetown seems like the best fit if they wanted to add one more non football school.

Only issue with that is, on the off chance ND feels inclined to move football to the ACC at some point which I'm sure is what the ACC is hoping, they're then stuck with 15 football teams and 16 teams in other sports. Maybe they could add a football only member, but that just ends up goofy.

I agree with BF51 that logically this would be the end of conference expansion for a little while. To me further conference expansion (and even a lot of the expansion we've seen) will serve more to benefit schools in terms of getting to a stable conference than the conferences themselves. But I also agree that some past moves (particularly Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC) haven't seemed that logical either, so I could see some conferences making other moves that I don't really get. The Big East is going to make some moves too, but I don't think they really count as a major conference anymore - just trying to stay afloat.

I didn't buy any of the Florida State, Clemson, name-your-ACC-school nonsense about them jumping to the Big 12 and the increase in exit fee now only confirms that whoever is in the ACC now will stay there.

Florida State voted against the increased exit fee. Of course the huge increase could end keeping them there regardless of their dissent, but the fact that they dissented does show they must have wanted to keep their options open in regards to leaving.

Florida State voted against the increased exit fee. Of course the huge increase could end keeping them there regardless of their dissent, but the fact that they dissented does show they must have wanted to keep their options open in regards to leaving.

Head of the BOT issued a statement basically saying FSU would challenge the damages as punitive and excessive.

The biggest surprise is Clemson (who screwed up the original plan) voting for the deal and buyout.

I agree with BF on expansion being halted by the major leagues with the only exception being the Big 12 which could possibly add two more teams, Cincinnati and Louisville, if deems a conference championship game lucrative enough to merit expanding back to 12 teams.

I may be biased, but I think the Big Ten is a better basketball conference top to bottom than the Big 12 or the SEC. The Big 12 has Kansas, Texas and West Virginia, and the SEC has Kentucky and Florida, but after that? A lot of mediocre to bad programs. There are at least 8-9 teams in the Big Ten every year that have a realistic shot at making the tournament, and often more than that. Sagarin agrees with my assessment, for what it's worth.

I may be biased, but I think the Big Ten is a better basketball conference top to bottom than the Big 12 or the SEC. The Big 12 has Kansas, Texas and West Virginia, and the SEC has Kentucky and Florida, but after that? A lot of mediocre to bad programs. There are at least 8-9 teams in the Big Ten every year that have a realistic shot at making the tournament, and often more than that. Sagarin agrees with my assessment, for what it's worth.

Sagarin and Ken Pom are the two I trust the most. They offer the most unbiased opinions with their rankings, imo.

I wouldn't mind the Big Ten getting bigger, but I only want it if they're actually going to get quality teams. Definitely don't want to add just to add or add for a tv market. Yea it'll make more money, but I don't get any of it. Unless you're adding a quality program that can be ranked consistently and compete for division titles, I'm not interested.

Despite the Big East wanting Navy to join the league before its scheduled 2015 arrival, athletic director Chet Gladchuk said Navy will not join early.
"There's a laundry list of reasons why we can't join in 2013 or 2014, and none of those objectives have changed," Gladchuk told ESPN. "That's why we determined 2015."Big East blog

In January, Navy and the Big East announced Navy would join the Big East in 2015 as a football-only member. However, new Big East commissioner Mike Aresco said Saturday he wanted to talk to Navy about coming on board before then.
"What makes sense for us remains 2015," Gladchuk said. "As it stands today we're still focused on (joining in) 2015."
Navy can't join earlier because it has games scheduled through 2018, bowl contracts through 2017 and television contracts with CBS College Sports -- and CBS Sports for the Army-Navy game -- through 2018, Gladchuk said.
Navy also is scheduled to expand its home stadium by 3,000-4,000 seats by the 2015 season and has other facility on-campus "fine-tuning" improvements to coincide with its first season in the Big East, Gladchuk said.
Next season, the Big East loses Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC but will add full members Houston, UCF, SMU and Memphis and football-only members Boise State and San Diego State, giving the Big East a 12-member football league.
Aresco has said the league wants to add another member besides Navy to become a 14-team football league.
Last month, ESPN reported the Big East is split on pursuing BYU or Air Force as the 14th football member and also would consider going to 16 schools if it could add BYU, Air Force and Army.Brett McMurphy covers college football for ESPN.

I know multiple people in management positions at UMass who seem really, really sure they are Big East bound soon.

Apparently the buyout can't be enforced until late 2013 so it would make sense now for Maryland to leave before that kicks in. Also, don't forget Maryland was only 1 of 2 ACC schools to vote against upping that buyout.

Maryland and Rutgers please!! I only say Rutgers is better than UVA because we have a larger TV base to draw from in NJ and then some of NYC and Philly. Also, Rutgers has a much larger living alumni base.